time immemorial

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time immemorial

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Noun

time immemorial (usually uncountable, plural times immemorial)

1. (countable, uncountable) Time that extends beyond memory or record.

   Synonym: time out of mind

   from time immemorial

   • 1870, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter XVII, in Lothair. , volume III, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 177–178:

     My home is in the North of Palestine on the other side of Jordan, beyond the Sea of Galilee. My family has dwelt there from time immemorial, but they always loved this city, and have a legend that they dwelt occasionally within its walls, even in the days when Titus from that hill looked down upon the temple.

   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., , →OCLC:

     The tower had been consecrated to this ancient diversion from time immemorial, the western façade conveniently forming the boundary of the churchyard at that end, where the ground was trodden hard and bare as a pavement by the players.

   • 1875 January–December, Henry James, Jr., Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1876, →OCLC; republished as Roderick Hudson (EBook #176), U.S.A.: Project Gutenberg, 18 September 2016:

     She had worn from time immemorial an old blue satin dress, and a white crape shawl embroidered in colors; […]

   • 1884, A Square [pseudonym; Edwin A. Abbott], Flatland , London: Seeley & Co., Part I: This World, § 4.— Concerning the Women:

     In every Circular or Polygonal household it has been a habit from time immemorial […] that the mothers and daughters should constantly keep their eyes and mouths towards their husband and his male friends; and for a lady in a family of distinction to turn her back upon her husband would be regarded as a kind of portent, involving loss of status.

   • 1888 [1848], Samuel Moore, transl., edited by Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto‎, translation of Das Kommunistische Manifest by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels:

     The Communists have no need to introduce community of women; it has existed almost from time immemorial.

   • 1905, Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC:

     This is a great tract of a hundred thousand acres, which from time immemorial has been a hunting preserve of the nobility.

   • 2002 September 15, David Chase, “For All Debts Public and Private”, in The Sopranos, season 4, episode 1, spoken by Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini):

     This thing is a "pyramid" since time immemorial, shit goes downhill, money goes up: it's that simple.

2. (UK law, uncountable) Time before 6 July 1189.

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